Travelling Europe with Eurail

My experience suggests that Eurail is pretty much a cartel, ie prices are fairly much the same everywhere. You might find they are a bit cheaper in the US, but the cost of transporting the tickets to Oz tends to nullify that advantage.

Have you thought about car rental in Europe? In my opinion, it beats the pants off Eurail cost-wise, if there are two of you travelling. And you get to see a lot more, too.

If you want some more info on this option, I'd be glad to help.

BTW, I'm renting cars in the UK, USA and also in Austria early next year.

 

When I went a couple of years ago I bought a Eurail Selectpass Youth 6 day from eurorailways.com (US company), saved $75 each on the Australian price, and got a free return airport transfer which we used on the Heathrow Express (worth about $60 each?).

They don't seem as good value anymore though, currently they are about A$20 cheaper on this pass (which will be cancelled out by the shipping costs) but they'll give you an extra day free.

I would be too scared to drive in Europe but it's probably fine once you're used to it.

Steve

 

If you take Clifford's advice and consider driving. -- I've done it and agree with Clifford that it beats the pants off rail or bus travel.
If your trip is more than 17 days, have a look at Renault Eurodrive (or the Citroen or Peugeot equivalent) I had a Renault Scenic for 6 weeks last year. The car effectively belongs to you (leased) and you are free to go where you please (within the limitations of the insurance policy) but effectively anywhere within Europe. I took mine from France, across the channel to UK then from Newcastle to Bergen on the ferry.
Don't worry about the driving. After a few days you'll be driving like a local.
RENAULT EURODRIVE : Free tax discount car rental and lease for expatriate and tourism travel in Europe

 

For a trip to Italy next May, where we plan on driving from Rome to SOrrento and then onto Florence, we're organising a rental car from here in Australia with Europcar. One of the things that I've noticed is that we're not tied to having to pick-up and drop-off at the airports. For a pickup in Rome we're picking up at the Sheraton in the city and for the drop-off in FLorence there is a 24-hr drop off location in the City. The vehicle we're planning on getting is a Renault Espac which is a 7 seater but for 4 passengers and luggage it should provide us with plenty of room.

I've also acquired a TomTom Go 910 portable navigation system that I plan on taking with me. What I will do is download the maps that I need and I'll be able to enter in my itineraries before I leave Australia. Once we collect the car in Rome it will be a simple case to turn on the TomTom and select the saved itinerary and we'll be on our way.

We'll be travelling by train from Florence to Venice and from Venice back to Rome but I've been told you can't book train travel until about 2 months out.

 

For the TomTom, you purchase & download the maps from their web site. For the complete set of maps for Western Europe you're looking at about 120 Euros. For a single country map, say Italy, it's about 60 Euros.

 

I'm a bit nervous about driving in foreign countries too, so I vote for the train. They are fast, comfortable, stations are conveniently located and European cities have much better public transport than most Australian cites, especially Brisbane! Plus, you don't have to worry about parking, the price of petrol or break-ins. I did the whole Europe by Eurailpass 15 years ago so that was obviously before online purchasing, but I loved it and wouldn't hesitate to do it again!